News

AT PROMISE, A TIME TO CELEBRATE AND REFLECT

PROMISE (Program for Returning Offenders with Mental Illness Safely and Effectively) held its annual holiday feast (affectionately called ‘Festivus’) recently, filling the program’s downtown Camden, NJ offices with the spirit of the season.

“Many of our clients have lost connections with their immediate and extended families,” said PROMISE Director Richard White. “This is our way of saying to them, ‘you do matter, you are a valuable person, and you have people who care about you.’ Our ‘Festivus’ provides a celebration during a time of year that can be difficult and can lead to lapses and relapses.  We want to help the folks we work with get through the holidays and stay on course.”

During the festivities, two PROMISE clients paused to reflect on the occasion – and on the program that is helping them turn their lives around.

“It’s great that everyone can get together,” said Frank Smith, 54, of Camden, who’s been at PROMISE since being paroled from Southern (NJ) State Prison in the fall. The program has helped him get work after many years of unemployment.

“I was selling drugs and using drugs for 35 years,” Frank said. “Every time I got out of prison I felt I didn’t have any choice but to go get high.”

The father of a 17-year-old son, Frank said he “never thought that anybody really wanted to help me.” Now he’s finding hope at PROMISE.

“I love working,” said the former machine operator, calling his current job “something to do to get myself prepared for another job.” There are other positive developments in his life as well.

 “I’m getting ready to go to a transition house now,” he said. “I know what it is to struggle. You have to work for what you want. You have to live life on life’s terms. When life shoots me a curve now, what I’ve got to do is make that right decision. I have to think about the outcome.

“From where I was to where I’m going at…is a big jump,” Frank added. “I never thought it could happen, because the drugs had me so messed up. I don’t even think about getting high no more, because I know where it’s going to lead me.”

April Smith-Robinson gave the invocation. The 39-year-old North Jersey native said PROMISE “is exactly what you make of it. If you intend to change your life around, this is the best place to be. They will help you do whatever you need to do to get your life back on track.”

At PROMISE since June, 2008, April is a student at Camden County College in Blackwood and is studying to become an addictions counselor. She calls the experience of returning to school “beautiful.”